Skip to main content

tv   Americas Newsroom  FOX News  December 6, 2013 6:00am-8:01am PST

6:00 am
>> december 26? >> yes, bravado. i want to give a shout out to the band. thank you. calvinn alan, mark sherman, legendary guys out there. >> have a great weekend, everybody. >> merry christmas and happy holidays. this this injustice is reversible. i have spoken about freedom in my lifetime. your struggles, your commitments, and your disciplines, mass released me to stand before you today. bill: that was 23 years ago. remembering an icon today, a man who changed a nation.
6:01 am
live look at johannesburg, south africa, where people are gathering at the home of nelson mandel last, the man who led the fight against apartheid and raci injustice dying at the age of 95. what a man. i'm bill hemmer. welcome to a friday edition of "america's newsroom." martha: good morning, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. a remarkable man and a remarkable life that he led. president obama here at home has ordered flags at the white house to be lowered in tribute. nelson mandela could have been bitter after spending 27 years in prison among the worst conditions imaginable. instead of revenge, when he was released he sought reconciliation. he became south africa's first democratically elected and first black president and forge ad legacy of forgiveness and unit. bill: we learned moments ago, mandela's national funeral will take place december 15th, nine days from now.
6:02 am
greg palkot leading coverage. greg, you were in south africa six months ago. how are people reacting there? >> reporter: that's right, bill. we were outside the pretoria hospital whereenelson mandela laid gravely ill couple months ago. we saw the outpouring. the scenes we're looking at now from south africa is just the beginning. it will continue. crowds are gathering outside of the johannesburg house where mandela spent last troubling weeks and months. they're marking the passing of the person they can the father of their country. they're mourning and also celebrating the man. his body was taken overnight to a nearby morgue in preparation for the week-long morning period starting with a national day of prayer this coming sunday and ending with burial in the following sunday in the home village. probably no stronger tribute we've heard today from the one-time nemesis of mandel last, f.w. de klerk. he was the last president of south africa under the hated apartheid system but also one who freed him from prison and
6:03 am
worked together with him to get rid of it. take a look at what he said. >> he was a great man. he was a very special man. i think his greatest legacy to south africa and to the world is the the emphasis which he has always put on the need for brevard county sill ages. on the importance of human rights. >> reporter: in 1993 the two of them won jointly the nobel peace prize. a year later mandela would become the first black president of south africa, bill. bill: they have been getting ready for this moment in that country. reaction from around the world is quite remarkable in amount of respect and honor they give him. >> reporter: it is incredible bill. not just a hero of south africa. nelson mandela was symbol of entire global community. he is recognized around the
6:04 am
world. flags flying at half-mast at the european union head quarters in brussels. leaders from paris, moscow, beijing, expressing sympathies, gratitude. we heard from former u.n. secretary kofi annan, called a the loss of man dale la a -- mandela a loss for the world. here is a little bit what u.k. prime minister david cameron had to say. >> one of the brightest lights of our world has gone out. nelson mandela was not just a hero of our time, but a hero of all time. >> reporter: now in a strange twist news of the death of mandela last night broke during the u.k. premier of his biographical movie "a long walk to freedom." mandela's passing was announced at end of the film, we're told to gasps even to screams in the audience. in attendance a members of mandela's family and royal family. the vatican marking this day. pope francis calling
6:05 am
nelson mandela's promotion of human dignity, against violence, for truth, absolutely monumental, everybody, religious figures, leaders, rock stars, models, you name it, all coming out and expressing their condolences and their love for the man. back to you. bill: a lot of people have been waiting for this moment but the reality when it happens is still a different thing. greg palkot, looking forward to your coverage in johannesburg real soon. thank you, greg. martha: president obama also reacting to the loss of the former leader whom he says inspired him a great deal. the president speak about mandela's spirit and legacy shortly after the word of his passing. >> we've lost one of the most influential, courageous, and profoundly good human beings that any of us will ever share time with on this earth. he no longer belongs to us. he belongs to the ages. through his first dignity and
6:06 am
unbending will to sacrifice his own freedom for the freedom of others madiba transformed south africa and moved all of us. bill: that from the white house yesterday. meanwhile president george bush 41 was aa the white house when mandela was finally released from prison in 1990 released this statement questioned. quote, as president i watched in wonder as nelson man dale la remarkable capacity to forgive jailers of after 26 years of wrongful imprisonment, setting remarkable example of grace for us all. he was a man of tremendous moral courage who changed the his country. martha: president clinton said this. history will remember nelson mandela as a champion for human dignity and freedom for peace and reconciliation. we will remember him as a man of uncommon grace and compassion for whom abandoning builterness and embracing adversaries was not just a political strategy but a way of life. bill: as we mentioned a moment
6:07 am
ago the plans for the memorial service and the funeral, they have been underway for quite some time. this will be a massive undertaking. some describing the planning as dealing with the opening and closing of the world cup. an inauguration, a coronation, all combined. there will be tens of thousands at the first public memorial event. that's set for tuesday at the soccer stadium in soweto. mandela made his last public appearance there at the world cup final in 2010. mandela's body will lie in state in three days in pretoria. he will be buried on the grounds of his childhood home in south africa. martha: we'll have more on the amazing life of nelson mandela. fox news political analyst juan williams will be joining us moments from now. he was in south africa in 1990 as a reporter when mandela was released from prison and later develop ad unique relationship with the man known as madiba he will join us. we'll have a special talk with him in a few minutes. bill: watching all the coverage
6:08 am
throughout the afternoon into the evening hours, last night and through this morning the thing that strikes me the level of forgiveness he had, not just for people who imprisoned him for 27 years but for everybody. all of humankind. we remember him. martha: he invited some of his white jailers to his inauguration and he constantly made that example, including what he did with the soccer team there. it is fitting that memorial process will begin in that soccer stadium where a lot of people remember the movie "invictus", which memorialized that incredible event, no, we'll keep the name of this team. blacks and whites together will support this team and cheer them on to a championship. really indicative of the spirit that he had throughout his life. incredible, incredible story. all right, let's tell you aa little bit about this here at home as the november jobs report has been released. it is the best indicator of the health of the labor department and the numbers are improving. some good news here this morning. u.s. unemployment rate fell to a five-year low, 7%.
6:09 am
that is sight for sore eyes. employers added 203,000 jobs. that's a decent number as well. today's report is especially important given possible changes in the federal reserve policy. that is the next discussion to be had here. fox business network stuart varney joins us to break it all down. stuart, good morning to you. what do you make of this number. >> for five years, we have new normal, low growth, high unemployment. this report suggest that is growth is picking up and new jobs coming on stream. dig below the surface and give you two very big numbers. number one, 218,000, that is how many people found work last month. that is the best performance in 30 years. next number, 63%. that is the participation rate. it's up from the month before. still fairly low. very low in fact but a tick upwards. so what you got here is a sign of some strength in the economy, some renewed hope that maybe
6:10 am
we're breaking beyond the new normal. i can tell you now, martha. the reaction the stock market is exuberant. you will see the dow go up about 100 points plus minutes from now. martha: it's interesting, stuart. you know the next conversation will be, well, you know, are things heating up to the point where we need to kind of pull back the reins on the money we've been pushing into this market and that might send the stock market in another direction. >> maybe, but today with signs of strength in the labor market and economy, yes we'll have a nice rally for the stock market. maybe we'll postponing the idea maybe the federal reserve will print less money. maybe then the stock market will go down. celebrate while you can, martha, because we're up about 130 points right now. lori: take a moment to enjoy that. stuart, thank you very much. >> sure. bill: extreme weather now. look out for this. there is arctic air blasting center of the u.s. bringing subzero temperatures to a lot of people. sleet as far as south as central
6:11 am
texas. areas of colorado dropping to 30 degrees below zero. you know it is cold when south daca city declares too cold to ice skate. stay inside. some saying it is set to be the worst ice storm to hit the country in four years. we'll watch this throughout the day. we'll bring you updates when we get them on that. you've been warned out there, old man winter. martha: we have a lot going on. jam-packed show. he was days a way joining family at home. american teacher. look at the young man, gunned down in the streets of benghazi. we're now learning about ronnie smith, his fate and the al qaeda threat that may have led to his death. bill: also president obama saying that the white house is not to blame for the rollout of obamacare and neither are republicans. we'll tell you what he did blame in a moment. lori: and a front row seat to history. juan williams on nelson mandela and his lasting impact.
6:12 am
>> i greet you all in the name of peace. democracy and freedom for all! i stand here, before you, not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of yous people. ♪ farmer: hello, i'm an idaho potato farmer.
6:13 am
and our giant idaho potato trk is still missing. so my dog and i we're going to go find it.
6:14 am
it's out there somewhere spreading the good word about idaho potatoes and raising money for meals on wheels. but we'd really like our truck back, so if you see it, let us know, would u? thanks. what?
6:15 am
martha: well it is not the typical sight you would expect to see on a soccer field a single-engine plane forced land in the middle of it. that happened in fair objection, california. the pilot was forced to land after experiencing engine problems. he walked away with minor injuries. the firefighters said he did a great job given the circumstances he was under.
6:16 am
there it is. >> the challenge i think we have going forward is not so much my personal management style or particular issues around white house organization. we have these big agencies, some of which are outdated. some of which are not designed properly. bill: revealing remarks you might think from president obama laying the blame for obamacare's stumbles, not on his management style but on big government. what about that now? mary catherine ham, editor-at-large, hotair.com, and byron york, chief political correspondent for "washington examiner." both fox news contributors. you saw the interview. we want you to analyze this. mk, first things first. we have these big agencies some of which are outdated. some of which are not designed properly like a website. go. >> right. let me first say i agree with the president that the federal bureaucracy is on obstacle for the government doing things well and that is one of the first reasons many people like myself
6:17 am
were skeptical about them undertaking this and doing well. here he is again narrating the presidency. the not actually holding office of president. presumably he is in charge of these things and could have made a difference. in this case he says this is a problem he knew about and will be solved sometime in the future, absolving himself and his administration of all the ppoblems he caused in the meantime. bill: i wonder how people react. not so much my personal management style. just to go back to this, put the quote on the screen, folks. we have these big agency, some which are outdated, byron, some which are not designed properly. what did you think when you heard that? >> the question is his own performance in the job. he can put the blame on a cumbersome bureaucracy system remember the president said he didn't know about these problems with the obamacare website prior to the october 1st rollout and kathleen sebelius, health and human services secretary said, the again the president didn't know. what we learned later was, they hadn't had a one-on-one meeting in more than three years. the president says he oversees
6:18 am
his cabinet carefully but with the one person directing his big legacy initiative he had not had a face-to-face meeting more than three years? bill: that is a good point, byron, i have an open door policy where i want people to bring me bad news on time so we can fix things. where is peeps? >> most management expert was say the president needs to seek out bad news as well. clearly there was a problem in the health and human service that is went way, way down, enormous problem with this rollout date, october 1 coming and the president didn't know about it? i think it is perfectly reasonable to say, does that reflect some problems with your management style? bill: what was your take on that, mk? >> federal bureaucracy to my mind never going to perform perfectly, but you know what? it can perform better than a 400 million-dollar website that does not work at all two months later. that is on the president's shoulders. this was his legacy law. hard not to look at this and go,
6:19 am
how were you not watching this every step of the way and making sure that it went at least better than this? i think that was, you know, as i said earlier, what many critics said when we were going into obamacare this is quite a bit for you guys to bite off. do you think you can handle it? turns out know, no, they couldn't. that to me is big problem that he is not taking responsibility for it. bill: on that point too, darrell issa told me two dae the website will exceed a billion dollars in the end. everything all-in will be more than a billion dollars, but placing the blame on congress for getting in his way, byron of reforming washington, what's up? >> well, you know this is something that democrats have done for a long time, not really placing blame on congress but places blame on the opposition party, republicans in congress for doing this. so we've heard this from the president a whole lot. what i really this is most interesting about the interview he does talk aaout a cumbersome, slow, redundant federal bureaucracy.
quote
6:20 am
remember when the hhs was saying the website problems were being fixed, they said it might soon work with private sector speed? i mean they're making a very, very strong case against doing things like this that the government level. bill: private sector velocity. >> velocity. bill: that was the quote. thank you, byron. thank you, mary catherine. a lot in this interview and we'll get to another quote next hour as well. thanks, have a great weekend. 20 minutes past. martha. martha: we're running gamut here this morning. a little news on kim kardashian for you. she is in some hot water now. what critics say about her new charity campaign. bill: about that, huh? some trouble. a deep freeze will affect millions of americans and how cold is it early in december? we're about to tell you. >> my nose is cold and my ears are cold. my head's cold. >> i don't know. i'm unprepared. it is a wonder that i even have a jacket on today. >> i have long jobs underneath. that is enough -- long jobs. >> i grew up in alaska.
6:21 am
>> and? >> so it is tropical. [ male announcer ] in your lifetime, you will lose three sets of keys, four cell phones, seven socks, and six weeks of sleep. but one thing you don't want to lose is any more teeth. if you wear a partial, you are almost twice as likely to lose your supporting teeth. poligrip and polident r partials seal d protect helps minimize stress, which may damage supporting teeth by stabilizing your partial. and clean and protect kills odor-causing bacteria.
6:22 am
care for your partial. help protect your natural teeth.
6:23 am
more shopping. more dining out. more traveling. and along with it, more identity theft. every time you pull out your credit card, shop online, or hit the road, you give thieves a chance to ruin your holiday. you can't be on the lookout 24/7. but lifelock can. protecting your identity, your bank accounts, even the equity in your home. when lifelock detects a threat to your identity within their network, they'll alert you by text, phone, or e-mail, protecting you before the damage can be done. act now and we'll protect you 60 days risk free. no one protects you better than lifelock. try lifelock protection 60 days risk free and get a special holiday gift --
6:24 am
a document shredder. a $29 value free. ♪ ♪ bill: so the lawyer for that florida state quarterback, james miss winston, now taking saying that the heisman hopeful is relieved he will not face charges in sexual assault case. suggesting winston's family might file a civil suit to figures the damage to his reputation. the victim said it was rape a year ago. winston says it was con sexual sex. winston will pay in the acc game against duke. if his team wins, they will play in the national title game in january. martha: we have extreme weather going on out there today. a dangerous ice storm that is hitting people from texas all the way up to the midwest.
6:25 am
oklahoma reported slick and hazardous roads in much of their state, as snow and sleet forced drivers from the roads into ditches like those folks. in texas, widespread power outages reported. nearly a thousand flights were canceled thus far. one person was killed on the icy roads there. >> we got an email indicating there could be substantial ice buildup, possible power outages and obviously, see the ice. already forming on the vehicles. so, safety first. it is pretty surprising considering that yesterday we were nearly 80 degrees. so i, yeah, it, it is pretty surprising how quickly the temperature can drop. martha: yeah, from 80, to ice, take a look at this. the cold is a major problem. these temperatures with the wind chill, 46 below in glascow, montana? 34 below in sioux falls, south dakota. it is 20 below right now in
6:26 am
denver. that is where we find alicia acuna shivering. how does it feel, alicia in i bet it feels cold, right? >> awesome, fantastic you can imagine. yeah it is awesome. it is actually pretty dangerous. i'm going to be able to go inside pretty soon but hospitals are filling up here in the denver area. that's because the cold, extreme cold can take a hard hit to the body. they have seen people with broken bones from falling. they have had traffic accidents but something as simple as brief skin exposure is leading to frostbite. what subpoena haing, a lot of times people don't even realize until it is too late they're in trouble. what can happen when people live in cold weather states like colorado, they're used to being outside when it is chilly, when it is like 20 degrees. right now as you mentioned it feels like it is about negative 20. it is actually negative 2. we're talking about temperatures that can lead to tissue damage in a the mare of minutes.
6:27 am
>> and so you would experiences from nip within a matter of seconds going out in weather like this. you can start to have frostbite within minutes when it is this cold. >> reporter: particularly for the homeless it is very dire. without a place to warm up, it is not only frostbite an issue, hypothermia can set in which can be deadly. shelters are filled up, as you can imagine. forecasts don't call for temps above freezing like 33 degrees until tuesday or wednesday of next week, martha. martha: it will be a long several days and a lot of people to worry about out there. the airport obviously is one of the busiest in this country. how are things going there? >> reporter: there have been some delays and cancellations out at denver international airport. the deicing crews have been out on the tarmac. that has been slowing things down. smaller commuter lines had to cancel some of their flights.
6:28 am
we're talking about on the roads things are particularly slick. auto collision businesses are very busy right now. that is because the deicing fluid they're putting on road is not working right now because it is simply too cold. people are slipping and sliding, driving to and from work every day this week that is exactly what it has been like. we haven't had a lot of snow. it has just been very, very cold. martha? martha: be careful out there. thanks so much. bill: so we, if you live in st. louis, by the way, hang on, because we have an image, we're not quite sure what it is but the windchill is 10 degrees in st. louis. we'll show you that in a moment. write to us and let us know what is going on out there. how about alicia? oh, it is awesome. lori: it is awesome. ah inspiring cold out there. bill: new information now on this tragic death we learned about yesterday at this hour. an american school teacher, ronnie smith, shot dead in benghazi only weeks before christmas. martha: tragic story that is. we will also be joined this
6:29 am
morning by juan williams who will reflect on his unique relationship with nelson mandela and the south african leader's monument al legacy. >> we got stop apartheid in april to achieve anything. i know that this is because i am the president of the people of south africa. ♪
6:30 am
6:31 am
6:32 am
bill: want some good news before the weekend. check out the 401(k) because
6:33 am
stocks are on the rise. up 105 at the open. we're looking 16,000 yet again after the jobs number came out. a lot of good news for the number. as for the labor participation rate, number of americans actively in the jobs report. that barely budged that will be a concern for economists going forward. we're focused on 117 and climbing right now at 9:33 on a friday morning. ♪ martha: the world is mourning nelson mandela this morning and a live look outside his home in south africa where people have been paying tribute and laying flowers honoring the iconic apartheid fighter. nelson mandela was released from prison back in 1990 after spending nearly three decades behind bars. our own juan williams covered that historic moment. he was fortunate enough to
6:34 am
develop a friendship with the future president as well. moments after his release mandela spoke to a crowd of more than 100,000 people. i greet you all in the name of peace. democracy and freedom for all. i stand here, before you, not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people. lori: humble servant of you the people. really stirring to hear those words. juan, that must have been on crunch edible moment. tell us what it was like then. nobody knew how it would go.
6:35 am
there was every reason it would evolve into a violent situation at that moment. >> people didn't know how to control the young lions, some young black people in south africa,. so long open pressed, uneducated, mandela himself was concerned about it. he really stood tall because of his moral authority. having been in jail for 27 years, talking about himself as you just heard, being a servant of the people and about democracy. remember he goes on to become the first elected president of a democratic multiracial south africa and forms a unity government with f.w. de klerk, the former president and white. you have this multiracial, unity face to the country and to all those who would sow chaos. when we stopped this morning and think back on the life of mandela, he had that capacity to tran send bitterness, pettiness, racial division at its height because remember south africa is a country that is majority
6:36 am
black, not majority white. here he is saying, we have had trouble but we can be bigger than the trouble we've seen. martha: some of people so oppressed by apartheid in africa at that moment were stunned and even angry. they didn't want to bridge the gap. they wanted to be the dominant force and they wanted to punish the people who had punished them in many ways at that point, right? >> exactly right. and again, so what does mandela do? he is talking about reconciliation. he is not talking about punishment. he changes the way people are talking about the future. and he is not talking again about black domination. he is saying, no, there is no domination, not black domination, not white domination. he actually had been saying that from the time he was on trial and put in jail. so he was always a man who had this sense, this vision, of a common world and a common future for black and south south africans. martha: this is so fascinating.
6:37 am
when you listen to his words, he is such an eloquent man and so capable of making people, being such a leader and rising above everything. and it is, he never talks about himself. i read one interview where he was asked, you know, how did you not, how did you come out not angry when you left robin island? he basically said, it didn't serve the purpose. it didn't serve the higher purpose and that is what he was all about. i want you to tell us as well, juan, what it was like to meet him and get to know him a bit. >> i want to pick up what you were just talking about, martha, at one point we were talking about the guards a talking about the guards in such a disarming friendly way, i was like but the guard, people who imprisoned you. they were just doing their jobs. he didn't have any sense of bitterness towards them and spoke of them as friends. later guards came to visit nelson mandela when he was a free man. that tells you something about his character.
6:38 am
from my memories, martha, i remember his big soft hands. we both loved boxing. my dad was a boxing trainer. mandela was fascinated at that time by mike tyson and american boxers, muhammad ali. we talked a lot about boxing. he was a poet. he was a great world leader and inspiration to so many, but not a guy who was self-possessed. unlike at love politicians. interested in the world, other people. wanted to know about american politics. fascinated by the american civil rights movement. martha: i think that is such an important point that you make about him and he was, he was sort of regal. he had a very regal bearing and yet he was humble which is such a great combination. >> awesome. i was remembering that when he came to the 50th anniversary of the united nations opening in new york, all the world leaders were around obviously and yet somehow mandela stood out as a leader among leaders because they all flocked to him. they all wanted photos with him
6:39 am
shaking hands. i got to go over, i was like, it was unbelievable that the world leaders were almost like, tell us your secret. how did you do this? martha: yeah. and think one of the secrets was that he put everything before himself and that he was such a strong man and who was able to be, you know, in the face of that moment, was able to bring people together, much the way abraham lincoln did during the civil war period in the united states, to wrench the two sides back together for belief in a greater nation. >> wow, that was terrific, martha. martha: a pleasure to talk to you about it this morning. thanks so much, juan. >> you're welcome, martha. martha: we'll see you throughout. bill: this is kind of day you take headline from a newspaper and put it on a shelf and keep it for a long time, some headlines from around the world and here in the u.s., what we call the grid portion of our studio, "new york post." death of freedom's champion. "washington post", nation's healer is dead. "new york times" and mercury newspaper out of south africa.
6:40 am
"daily mail" out of london, death of a colossus, all poignant, remembering mandela, you mentioned words we were talking a few moments ago and speeches he made and comments he made and quotes he made and they were so poignant and full of morality in his comments, it is something that we will all reflect on not just today but next couple weeks as we get ready for a funeral december 15th. martha: absolutely. this story for you as well. this american teacher murdered in libya had plans to go home for christmas to see his family. we talk about ronnie smith, who may have been hyped his murder. lieutenant colonel ralph pettrs on that. >> wake-up call for all of this online after millions of social media accounts are hacked this week from facebook to healthcare.gov, how do you stay safe online? we will check this out to help
6:41 am
you online, coming up.
6:42 am
6:43 am
6:44 am
martha: sad and stunning story here. a washington state woman was live tweeting a car wreck on wednesday when listening to her police scanner and as the details were revealed, karen johnson began to realize this fatal accident may have involved her husband. she tweeted, i'm trying not to panic but my husband left work early. driving the 205 to get home he is not answering his home. after calling his office and he was feeling faint when he left, what do i do now. he might have pulled over feeling faint or had aziz sure. he had epilepsy. very sadly her worst fierce were confirmed. she wrote this. it is him. he died. the police are investigating this crash. and an online fund has now been created to support the 41-year-old mother of two children.
6:45 am
what a sad story. bill: new details now on the american teacher gunned down in benghazi yesterday. ronnie smith, shown here, getting ready to spend christmas back in austin, texas, with his wife and young son, sending them home ahead of him while staying back to help his students with their exams. a man of faith. he saw what he was doing in libya as part of god's mission for him. no one claiming responsibility for smith's murder but just days before an al qaeda spokesman, adam gadd dan, american, calling libyans to attack westerners. lieutenant colonel ralph peters, fox news strategic analyst and military analyst as well. colonel, good morning to you. great to have you back. i want to get to his vocation in a moment. adam gadan, mentioned a few moments ago, al qaeda propogandist, mention to militants in libya, rise up and take vaning against america. that was his message. we don't have a link.
6:46 am
we don't have proof this group was involved but what do you take from that, colonel. >> no doubt this was islamists. islamists number one, they dread, they fear western education because people who get, in the middle east get a decent education don't automatically sign up for the 7th century. the second problem was, of course it, when president obama utterly failed to take any retaliatory action after the slaughter of our ambassador and three other americans in benghazi last year, it became open season on americans. so it was really own a matter of time until this truly heroic, quietly heroic young man's life was cut short. bill: i want to make this point clear. we do not know if he was a victim of a crime or if he was truly targeted by islamists in benghazi 24 hours ago. but more to the point about what islamists do not like about werners teaching people in their
6:47 am
country is what, colonel? >> well, you know, modern science and chemistry doesn't match the philosophies and religious beliefs the middle ages, it just doesn't but there's this, call this mad rage against things western even as terrorists are welcome willing to use our technologies. but bill, i have to say two things. i don't believe this young man was target of a robbery type crime because he was jogging. second i have no doubt this was us lamists. maybe i will be proved wrong but i would be shocked if it was anybody else. your viewers should know, our viewers should know, the tradition in which this young man followed goes back to the 19th century. heroic americans, beginning with missionaries spreading out to secular educators we've been going for almost two centuries to the middle east, to jerusalem, to beirut, to cairo, to libya to try to help these
6:48 am
people forward. bill, there are two kinds of american teachers that go today to the middle east. ones go for the big bucks in rich gulf states. but people like ronnie smith who believed they can make a personal difference, not a government. not an army. not even an aid organization but a young man trying to change lives in a forelorne area of the world. as the holiday season approaches he is the kind of american i want to remember. bill: that's a great point of the he was in egypt before he went to benghazi. imagine the sacrifice he was making. you're an historian also. when you look back at history and examine history these are the true teachers. >> absolutely -- bill, that's a crucial point. we always make a fuss about the diplomats but, we have some great diplomats and we have others who hide out in the embassy compound but a young man like this, in his early 30s, who after the attack on our
6:49 am
diplomatic facility in benghazi, nonetheless stayed at his post to help train young libyans, who are striving for a better life, despite the risks, he stayed there. and to me your point is crucial. these teachers in places like lebanon, egypt today, libya, tunisia, they are, in my view our very best ambassadors. they're the people who show america in the best possible light as the land of enduring hope. bill: well-stated. thank you, colonel. he has family members in michigan and obviously his wife and young child are back in austin, texas, and we hope and we pray for them during this christmas season. thank you. ralph peters there. great point he makes also about the, these, these people are the true teachers and true educators who go to very difficult places to pursue the vocation that they have been called to pursue. martha: they are not often heralded, these heroes and he is
6:50 am
absolutely right to point that out about ronnie smith today and we think about his family over the holidays for sure. sad situation. sock, so here's what we have coming up next, reality diva, kim kardashian, holding a celebrity auction, selling off her clothes for goodness sakes for a very good cause but the question is, how much of the money did she actually give to charity? why kim k is in some pretty hot water over this. bill: tragedy in extreme obstacle course. it is known as the big mudder, leaving one teammate calling for help and more. [screaming] >> help. bill: are these tough mudders, just too tough? in the nation, sometimes bad things happen.
6:51 am
6:52 am
6:53 am
but add brand new belongings from nationwide insurance and we won't just give you the partial value of items that are stolen or destroyed... ...we'll replace them with brand-new versions. so you won't feel robbed. again. just another way we put members first. because we don't have shareholders. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪
6:54 am
bill: we mentioned this 20 minutes ago because we have absolutely no idea what this is about but it is very cold in missouri. windchill is about 10 degrees already. a rooster in a car south of st. louis about an hour. she is spinning and she looks cold. if you know, if you know where this is, send us a tweet. martha: rooster. bill: @billhemmer or @marthamaccallum. give us a little information on that. rooster. martha: i love that. put this in the category of not keeping up with appearances, kim kardashian criticized for holding an ebay charity event and donating only 10% of the proceeds to typhoon victims in the philippines? kardashian publicized events proceeds would go directly to the philippines but never specified how much of it. julie banderas joining us live with the details. >> surprising to many people who assumed she will give more because she is worth millions of
6:55 am
dollars. it was charity, guys, an auction held through ebay giving works. the way kim publicized this charity event on her website was as follows. all proceeds will go directly to the communities serving in the philippines and will help typhoon survivors get access to medical care and ultimately save lives but in those words kim didn't specify what percentage of the proceeds would be given directly to help. and that is why she is now once again in the center of a controversy because it was that 10% you just mentioned, as the amount actually going to the international medical corps relief efforts. martha: so what is reaction been? she said all proceeds in the quote. >> it did say all proceeds. all apparently become 10%. one crisis communications expert who spoke with "fox 411".com. discussed those bid inning this auction and p way. when you say something is for the charity the assumption is much more than 10% goes to charity, adding it is wrong to misleaded public.
6:56 am
many on twitter are reacting too, one saying kim is being quote, selfish. for kim's camp they maintain something is better than nothing. 10% is usual number for her. we reached out for comment this morning. kim's rep told "fox 411".com, nobody has to give anything. yet kim gives 10% of everything and now she is being judged for it. we reached out to the international medical corporation about kardashian's donation, but it told fox 411.com, said first-responders rappedly deliver life saving services to affected families and relief suffering from those in communities that need it most. that is direct quote. go to "fox 411". com, for full story, 10%, pennies. somebody said roots sister might be a weather vain. could be. obama administration in hot water they did not tell the truth about the president's undocumented uncle.
6:57 am
what did they say? that's next. every day we're working to be an even better company - and to keep our commitments. and we've made a big commitment to america. bp supports nearly 250,000 jobs here. through all of our energy operations, we invt more in the u.s. than any other place in the wor. in fact, we've invested over $55 billion here in the last five years making bp america's largest energy investor. our commitment has never been stronger.
6:58 am
6:59 am
7:00 am
martha: all right, we start off with this fox news alert, the white house changing its tune on president obama's relationship with his uncle who now faces deportation. welcome, everybody, to a brand new hour of "america's newsroom" on a friday. i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. the president's relationship with his uncle getting new attention after he was granted permission to remain here in the united states. martha: so the administration said unequivocally the president and his uncle, omar obama, had never met, but uncle omar testified this a court of law that the president lived with him for a short time back in the '70s. ed henry joins us live from the white house. so, ed, how does the white house explain this contradiction here? >> reporter: well, it's kind of bizarre, martha. the bottom line is it all started back in 2011 when omar obama was pulled over in massachusetts for allegedddrunk driving.
7:01 am
he initially said i'm going to be calling the white house, the officers on the scene realized there was some connection to president obama, and when they got a call back from "the boston globe," they said there was of no record of the president ever meeting that uncle. it turns out omar obama said they actually lived together many years ago when president obama was a sttdent at harvard law school. so the white house explains it as saying that when they first got the call from the boston globe back in 2011, they never directly asked the president whether or not he knew his uncle, they just went back and looked at his book and other things. here's jay carney trying to explain it. >> when omar obama said the other day -- and there were reports that he had said the other day that president obama back when he was a law school student had stayed with him in cambridge, i thought it was the right thing to do to go ask him. nobody had asked him in the past, and the president said he, in fact, had met omar obama when he moved to cambridge for law school, andts that he stayed wih
7:02 am
him for a brief period of time until his, the president's apartment, was ready. >> reporter: so now the white house trying to clean this up, but sort of strange that they didn't go to president obama back in 2011 and just get the facts, martha. martha: yeah. so the president's uncle has been given legal residency here in the united states, so one question would be if the be white house had anything to do with that. >> reporter: well, i pressed jay carney on that as well, and he insists that president obama, white house staff did not get t(áqthey've-hux allowed this te handled as a local law enforcement, as an immigration issue there in the boston area and have not interfered at all. martha: all right. thank you, ed. >> reporter: good to see you. ♪ bill: the world remembers a giant for justice and a bright, shining light his entire life, and now a week of national mourning in south africa following the death of nelson mandela. today south africans are united
7:03 am
in mourning and celebrating the life of a freedomr helped bring down apartheid. nelson mandela will be laid to rest at a state burial in his ancestral village on december 17th. and we're streaming live from south africa. what is the scene like there? >> reporter: south africa has started?sug the official mournig process today. details are now coming out about the official mourning period and the funeral program in what will be the largest event of this kind ever seen on the african continent. the crowds are still gathering outside nelson mandela's johannesburg home, but these will be dwarfed by the massive numbers expected to attend the memorial service held in the soccer stadium where the world cup final was held a few years ago and where arguably nelson mandela held his last public appearance, his last major public appearance. and then the next day it will
7:04 am
move to the union buildings where his body will lie in state for three days before he is moved to the area where he was born in the eastern cape, and specifically to the small village of kunu in the eastern cape. there on sunday the 15th, his funeral will be held in front of 2-3,000 dignitaries including president obama and many other world leaders. today, earlier today south african president zuma joined other mourners in laying flowers in what has become a shrine outside nelson mandela's johannesburg home. in capetown archbishop desmond tutu said that losing nelson mandel rah was like losing a close member of your family. today in south africa everyone is mourning. tonight they will be dancing in the streets, but this is not some disrespectful partying, bill. this is a sign of respect, an african tradition for africa's
7:05 am
ultimate struggle hero. bill? bill: well done, paul..% thank you. we're looking forward to the next nine, ten days in your country in south africa. martha? martha: well, now for more on nelson mandela, let's wring in a man who brings a unique perspective to this discussion because he was the u.s. ambassador to south africa during apartheid. edward perkins, former u.s. ambassador to south africa, ambassador, welcome. it is very good to have you with us this morning. >> thank you. good to be here. martha: look back for us on those times in the reagan administration and the role, the unique role that you were asked to play while nelson mandela was in prison prison. >> well, as you say, during the reagan administration things got a little hot here in washington, in the united states in terms of how the united states government looked at the apartheid system. and we were sort of using benign neglect in a sense.
7:06 am
not getting directly involved in letting everybody know that this was not something that the united states government could countenance. and president reagan was advised by his secretary of state, george shultz, that perhaps the united states needed to really make a dramatic change in our policy. and it had been suggested that perhaps a black man should be the next ambassador, although the administration did not think in terms of a career person, but george shultz, the secretary of state, said we need to send a career person to south africa to recognize that we're serious about what we're doing. and thus, my name came to be. and there were nine foreign black, senior foreign service officers at that time. i was the most junior of them all, but the secretary did ask me if he could send my name to
7:07 am
president reagan as the person he would like to have sent to south africa. martha: fascinating story. so tell me, you said you communicated with him by letter. what was it like for you at that point to arrive this apartheid south africa to try to free nelson mandela? because that's the mission you were sent on. >> that's true. it was a mission from both the president and the congress. congress specifically said free nelson mandela. not quite sure how they thought i could do that, but nevertheless, it was a part of by brief, and the president said i hope you can, i hope you can get rid of apartheid as you say you want to. but please, try can and do it without violence. and thus, he said you're on your own in south africa, because we don't know what to do. therefore, just tell us what you're doing, but don't ask us for permission to do certain things. and so for about three years that was sort of my brief. fortunately for me, i had some of the best foreign service people that our nation can
7:08 am
produce. and we had, we had a learning experience. i think that's the way i would put it. martha: i bet you did. we're almost out of time, but what was mandela's response when he realized that you were there and that you were working on his behalf? >> his response was to send me a message by his wife saying that he's glad i was there, he knows that i've within trying to get -- i've been trying to get the government to let me in to see him, he knows they keep turning me on, but please keep asking, mr. ambassador, because every time you and it gets in the news, i become a little more powerful in prison. as a matter of fact as a matter of, i told the attorney general once they needed to let him out immediately without any conditions because he gets more powerful the longer he stays in prison, and the attorney general said, oh, come on, you're kidding. but when i was in south africa right after he got out of prison, the attorney general came to have lunch with me at the residence.
7:09 am
he said i just want to thank you for one thing, mr. ambassador. i said, what's that? he said, don't say i told you so. [laughter] martha: your story's fascinating, ambassador perkins, and i'm sure that your family so proud of the art that a you played -- of the part that you played in this history, and thank you so much for being with us and for sharing it with us today. thank you so much, ambassador perkins. >> it's my pleasure. thank you very much. bill: we are also hearing from former political prisoners who served time with mandela, one saying that he had the common touch with everyone. >> as a school child, i was in awe of this man. but way he related to me, he made me feel comfortable right from the start. made me feel equal to him. with. bill: nelson mandela spent 27 years in jail before he was released in 1990. and last hour at the top of our program, we had a part of his
7:10 am
speech that he made during that year that he was released. what was he, about, what's the quick math on that? 95, 85, 75, 68 years old, and he looked so spry and so good. you'll be seeing a lot of that coming up in the next couple of weeks. martha: yes, we will. interesting trip back through history. so the white house making a big push to get young people to sign up for health care insurance, as you know, but the president may be having an even bigger problem when it comes to america's youth right now. plus this -- [gunfire] bill: there is now new fallout from are an officer's decision to fire at a minivan filled with children. martha: and an obstacle challenge that is known as the tough mudder. this race has become increasingly popular in this country, but in this situation it turned tragic. and now a man's family is fightingcu back.
7:11 am
>> get 'em back! go down! >> dude, i'm about to [bleep] >> hey, dude. oh, [bleep] this guy.
7:12 am
7:13 am
7:14 am
bill: an update now on a story we did when it first broke back in october to. remember this scene here. >> >> listen to me. [inaudible conversations] bill: this thing went from bad to worse, frankly. video of a traffic stop, a second traffic stop, by the way, that turned to chaos. a new mexico police officer opening fire on a mother in a minivan full of kids. this happened, and then she sped off again. the officer has now been suspended pending an investigation into that shooting. state of new mexico.0='u ♪ ♪ martha: well, president obama stepping up his push to win back
7:15 am
support from his base, especially among young adults, attending several events this week, but college students saying the president isn't delivering on his word. here's one of them. take a look. >> when he made all these promises during the campaign that he really hasn't been able to keep. unemployment's still the issue. when i graduate from college, i want to be able to have a job open in the market praise for me, and the way the -- place, and the way the president is enacting his policies, i don't think that is becoming a reality as he had hoped. martha: so meanwhile, in this week a new poll shows president obama is losing support among millennials, 18-29-year-olds. 41% say they approve of the job he is doing, 54% disapprove. tucker carlson is co-host of fox and friends on the weekend, and chris stirewalt is fox news digital politics editor. wow, great panel. good morning, guys, good to have you with us. you guys have a lot of titles. [laughter]
7:16 am
tucker, let me start with you. i thought this or harvard study was fascinating, you know, because this is a group that has always loved the president, gave him tremendous support in both of his elections, and now they seem to be changing their mind a bit. >> well, love is the word. i mean, i think the emotional connection has been powerful, not clear how deeply grounded it was in understanding what policies might turn out to be. the truth is that obamacare only works ifo= it. i mean, this is the payoff to insurance companies that guaranteed their support for the law three years ago which is lots of new customers, hell the people -- healthy sending their money. and so, yeah, massive dropoff, it mirrors his larger poll numbers. the good news for democrats is these are not people who vote in midterm elections anyway, so i'm not sure it's going to to make a huge difference in '14. martha: perhaps not.júwñ something very interesting was said on this show yesterday, ccris, and it was that the thing that started to turn some of this group, this 18-29-year-old
7:17 am
group, was the nsa issue, that the whole issue of, you know, sort of oversight and messing with my cell phone or my social media or getting access to my private life which this group holds extremely dear is a huge no-no. >> well, that's the first breach. when you get to the point of breach between the president and these most important supporters that he had -- because, remember, to tucker's point, not only do young voters provide votes, but they also provide the patina of cool. they make you look and seem cooler which helps old people, like me, think that you might actually be cool. if young people like you, like i don't really know what instagram does, but i know young people seem to like it, so i'm more prone to say, sounds good. young people made obama look better to older voters. the breach on nsa was so significant because it took away, it shattered that confidence that they had. then when you get into the implementation of the health law, which as tucker points out
7:18 am
targets those young voters, it takes from them to give to middle-aged people, those voters respect going to like it. and then when it turns out that the president deceived voters during the re-election campaign be, well, that's enough to take breach into riot. martha: one of the things i find really interesting is the issue of jobs and the economy. now, we had a pretty good jobs number that came out this morning, and that is certainly news that the white house should feel good about. but over the past years, every poll we've looked at, you know, what's your most meaningful topic when you look at -- the economy and jobs. and be yet the president has constantly tried to pull everybody toward health care and convince them that also had a huge impact on the economy. i'm not sure people bought into fiñ way, and the president still continues to, you know, push this as the major issue over the others, it seems, tucker. >> well, it's manager he can control directly, and there's not, by the way, necessarily a direct connection between the job numbers and his popularity. take a rook at the black
7:19 am
unemployment rate which has pretty much doubled under obama's first term and his support in that community is, obviously, really, really strong. so, you know, the truth is this is part of a much larger sort of plan that obama has to fix, from the his perspective, income inequality. the health care plan is not just about delivering health care, it's about making this a more even, flatter society. i think this is part of the great motivation behind it. so it's of a piece of a world view. martha: chris, one last thought on. hispanics also seem to be liking the president a little bit less lately. you know, is it part of a larger piece, and what would conservatives take away from these issues and these numbers, do you think? >> when the president was being gently nuzzled yesterday in his interview with chris matthews -- [laughter] the point on which matthews insisted on pressing the president was why aren't you delivering on the excellence
7:20 am
that you are capable of, why aren't you more excellent? and as he was pushing, the president continued to say, well, it's the republicans' fault. and and finally, in a moment of almost exasperation, the president said, look, nothing good or important happens really in the united states government until you have one party control. well, come on. that's a copout. and the president making that copout works if you trust him. if you believe that he is honest and you believe he is trustworthy, you are likely to believe him when he says i'm doing everything i can to deliver comprehensive immigration changes, everything i can to help you out. then when you don't trust him, people aren't going to listen. martha: all right. nice nuzzling with you all. [laughter] >> ooh! a thrill ran up my leg! thank you. [laughter] martha: all right. visit the politics page, chris' daily political newsletter, go to foxnews.com/fox news first, you'll see tucker on the weekend
7:21 am
in the morning, folks. bill: a massive social media site hack this week, and the concern of healthcare.gov posing a simple question for everyone online: how do you keep your personal information safe? we will tech this out, in minutes. martha: and how tough is too tough? why tough mudder competitions are now under the microscope. >> go, go, go, go, go, go! [bleep] we're aig. and we're here. to help secure retirements and protect financial futures. to help communities recover and rebuild. for companies going from garage to global. on the ground, in the air, even into space. we repaid every dollar america lent us. and gave america back a profit. we're here to keep our promises. to help you realize a better tomorrow. from the families of aig, happy holidays.
7:22 am
globe back in 2011 they never
7:23 am
7:24 am
martha: i know you've been worrying abot this, so we're going to take you back to our spinning rooster car we showed you. we know this is in missouri, about an hour outside of st. louis, but we had no idea what this was, so we asked you and, of course, you delivered because
7:25 am
that's how the world works. tim robinson says blackwell motors, welcome to the world. thanks, tim. we are very happy to be here in the world, and that is a cool picture. bill: uh-huh. martha: we know all about that. bill: wind chill, 10 degrees. time for a new segment we'res3ññ calling check this out because we're going to tech this out. today we're looking at online security and what a week it has been from facebook to google to healthcare.gov. hackers are all over the internet. how can you make sure that your personal information is safe? peter is a technology analyst for marble.com in our debut segment of tech this out. stop using the same pass word over and over, that is tip number one. >> that is definitely tip number one. etch uses the same password on a lot of different sites, i myself have been guilty of in the past, stop doing it. it is not a good idea because once one of those gets captured, basically --
7:26 am
bill: it's a great point, peter, but we have so many accounts online. >> i know. how do you remember these? bill: how do you remember them? >> there are tools that ;czwé help you, little plug-ins you can put in your browser that will remember your passwords for you, so you only have to remember one. apple is actually building this into the new version of safari which now works with mobile as well. so your browser on your iphone will also -- bill: what was the name again? >> it's called i cloud key chain. bill: okay. that's just built into apple's products. bill: number two, don't share sensitive information over public wi-fi, and that takes discipline. wait til later. >> dealt. when you're in a coffee shop, that is not the place to do your banking. public wi-fi is too easy to get into. you remember the story that broke a while back where google harvested a bunch of wi-fi data just from its street view cars. it's just too easy. the stuff is floating around, and having a password on your
7:27 am
wi-fi helps. better is that you just don't do that over wi-fi, in public wi-fi. bill: point number three, never share credit card information, sensitive passwords, etc. that's obvious. >> yeah. you don't know what other people are doing. the temptation is, though, is you might share a password with family over e-mail because they don't remember. resist the temptation to send that. you get it later, you'll do something for them later or you just put it if a secure place online that they can access and then, you know, then you can share that. bill: i see that point as just a good remind or to keep reinforcing for a lot of people. shop only at safe sites. sounds simple. how in the world do you know? >> well, there's a couple of tools to help you know, and they're not 100% foolproof, so i know people will frog me if -- flog me if i say that, but the lock on your browser icon, that thing you see beside the address at the very top, that is one of these tools that lets you know there is a secure connection
7:28 am
going on. bill: i see. >> also every web site address believes with http. you want to look for https which s stands for security -- bill: that's a great tip, yeah. great reminder too. number five, periodically revoke social networks and services. >> this is a new one. bill: in english, what is that about? is. >> yeah. what it is is now that we have so many of these services and we want them to interact with each other, right in so you take a picture on instagram, you want to put that on facebook. so you have to get these two services to shake hands on the back end. you've probably seen it, authorize this to do this? yes. that authorization stays in place even if you change your pass worth, and these build up over time. over a few years you probably have dozens of them and some on accounts you don't even keep track of anymore, so it's a good idea to revoke all of these -- bill: especially for young folks, too, that are online and sharing all this data and information. >> absolutely.
7:29 am
you're sharing your instagrams on a bunch of different networks. bill: peter, good to see you again. >> my pleasure. bill: tech this out. thank you, peter. >> no problem. martha: all right. a base this the middle of a war zone costing you, the ta&zk tens of millions of dollars, but it's not even being used, so now there's a big search for what is this thing and why are we paying for it? across america people are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza®.
7:30 am
for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza®. he said victoza® is different than pills. victoza® is proven to lower blood sugar and a1c. it's taken once-a-day, any time, and comes in a pen. and the needle is thin. victoza® is not for weight loss, but it may help you lose some weight. victoza® is an injectable prescription medicine that may improve blood sugar in adultth type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. it is not recommended as the first medication to treat diabetes and should not be used in people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. victoza® has not been studied with mealtime insulin. victoza® is not insulin. do not take victoza® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to victoza® or any of its ingredients. symptoms of a serious allergic reaction may include: swelling of face, lips, tongue, or throat, fainting
7:31 am
or dizziness, very rapid heartbeat, problems breathing or swallowing, severe rash or itching. tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. serious side effects may happen in people who take victoza®, including inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), which mabe fatal. stop taking victoza® and call your doctor right away if you have signs of pancreatitis, such as severe pain that will not go away in your abdomen or from your abdomen to your back, with or without vomiting. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you have any medical conditions. taking victoza® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. the most common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, and headache. some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. if your pill isn't giving you the control you need about non-insulin vioza®. it's covered by most health plans.
7:32 am
7:33 am
♪ martha: an empty military facility sitting in afghanistan that costs taxpayers there are 34 million -- $34 million, now a watchdog is reopening an investigation into why the giant structure was built and never used. molly henneberg's live this washington with more on this. why are they reopening this investigation now, molly? >> reporter: martha, because the special investigator who's tasked with looking into money spent in afghanistan says he's not getting answers from the army,msoñ he's not getting answs from the pentagon about what's going on with this massive, empty, unused $34 million u.s.-built facility this afghanistan. the investigator wrote to defense secretary chuck hagel ask other military leaders and says he's restarting the investigation that he shelfed over the summer while he waited for the army to answer his questions. he says the answers he's gotten are not sufficient and actually raise more questions. so he wants more information on why the 64,000-square-foot building was constructed at camp leatherneck in southwestern afghanistan.
7:34 am
the massive tower structure was built after president obama ordered a surge of troops into southern afghanistan in 2009, but helq÷+ maintains it's too g for the few hundred u.s. troops in that area. martha? martha: well, how could all this money have been wasted and nobody noticed it or stepped this to say, you know, we don't need to be doing this? >>mmpq÷ what to that's, -- thats what he's asking too. quote: this is a white elephant that the that leans said they don't want and don't need. it's frankly a mystery to us why the army would want to continue pouring money into this, that's why we're relaunching this investigation, because american taxpayers are not getting the accountability they deserve. he has said previously that this building in afghanistan ill lumbar nates -- illuminates a problem; that once a project is started, quote, it's very difficult to stop. martha: molly, thank you very much. ♪ ♪
7:35 am
bill: president obama was asked about 2016, specifically about hillary clinton and joe biden. when he went on to say this about america's standing in the world under his presidency. listen now. >> hillary, i think, will go down this history as one of finest secretaries of state we've ever had and helped to transition us away from a deep hole that we were in when i first came into office around the world. and to rebuild confidence and trust in the united states. bill: is that really the case? stephanie williams, lars larson, syndicated talk show host, how are the two of you doing, and good morning? >> good morning. bill: i want to focus on that last comment on the screen again, a deep hole that we were in this when i first came into office around the world and to rebuild confidence and trust in the united states. lars, how's that going? >> it's ridiculous. take a look around the world. iran is closer to a bomb, north korea's got a bomb, we're in great shape, i guess, in egypt. that place is going just fine,
7:36 am
right? libya, four americans dead, now five counting the teacher, but the four diplomatic personnel. our relationship with russia, russia laughs at us. we are a laughingstock at this point. china is now challenging us in northern japan, and this is supposed to be the success story legacy of hillary clinton while she's out collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from the likes of goldman sachs? you've got to be kitting me. bill: ebony, what do you think of the comment there? >>w i think it's a great place to start, bill. look, we definitely have a long way to go, no one's saying mission accomplished. we've got to go back to 2008, guys. what was he walking into? two vastly unpopular american wars, afghanistan, of course, and there has been some accomplishment in this administration, guys. some of it very much so at the heels of leadership by hillary clinton. we cannot forget the fact that we absolutely got bin laden. al-qaeda is running scared. we have not had an attack on
7:37 am
u.s. soil since 9/11. that is not an -- >> bill.#%lí bill: now, hang on a second. i'll get you both to weigh in on this too. this comment comes in the same week that the pew research center found this about how americans feel about how america is viewed in the world. it's at a 40-year low, lars. >> well, it's -- and it shouldn't surprise anybody. ebony mentions the two wars. number one, iraq was being wound down by george bush and, fortunately, barack obama followed the blueprint that he followed. but he wasn't able to get a status of forces agreement, so now iraq is falling apart again. in afghanistan if she wants to consider that a success, 70% of the casualties in afghanistan happened in the four and a half years of president obama and not in the eight years of george bush. that's not exactly a success story either. and our stature around the world is falling apart. bill: ebony? >> well, i would disagree with that respectfully, lars, in terms of stature.
7:38 am
that old you referenced, bill, that's american perception. if we talk about international perception of america's standing, i think it vastly differs. we have to look no further than the international response to the horrible thicks going on in -- things going on in the philippines. bill: but she canically, ebony, to rebuild confidence and trust in the united states, do people trust the united states more now than they did five years ago? do they have confidence -- >> bill, i would say -- bill: -- now more than they did five years ago? >> will, i would say that's the area we need to improvepk we cannot ignore the issue of security, gentlemen, and that is a part of it. the security part, i think, is improving. we still do need to work on trustworthiness, i do believe that. ur enemies don't fear us anymore, our allies don't trust us anymore, we're weaker militarily, and we're not respected more today than we were five years ago.#[
7:39 am
7:40 am
7:41 am
7:42 am
bill: this is fire and ice. an early morning fire hitting an participant complex for the -- apartment complex for the second time, crews responding in north dakota where the wind chill reaching 30 below zero.
7:43 am
nobody living there at the time. they were being rebuilt after a previous fire just about a year ago. ♪ ♪ martha: a maryland family is now considering a multimillion dollar lawsuit against a long distance military-style obstacle course that has become hugely popular and that is known as the tough mudder. this family's son died during this event. 28-year-old avi trained with his buddies for more than a year, then he and his five friends -- many of them from work, work buddies of his -- they started the 12-mile course together, and then they hit this obstacle. [inaudible conversations] martha: that's the moment that avi jumps in to the muddy water that is part of this obstacle. the pool is 45 feet wide, and it's 15 feet deep. but the sad part of this story is that when he jumped in, he
7:44 am
did not resurface and panic started to spread among his friends who was right behind him and the other participants. >> what? no [bleep], dude. dude, get your mask on, go! [bleep] oh, [bleep], don't say that. mask on! go down there! martha: they are urging the rescue person to jump in to get the mask on and to go under the water which you couldn't see, you know, in front of your face in that water. eight minutes after he went into the water, he was found, and a desperate attempt to revive him was unsuccessful. he was declared brain dead. elliott woods has been investigating this story, he's a contributor to "outside" magazine, and lis wiehl is a fox news legal analyst. elliot, you know, it's a very sad story, obviously. he was a young man with a bright future. but some would say, you know, these events are risky, and, you
7:45 am
know, this kind of thing, it's possible it could happen. >> yeah. there's no doubt that there is an inherent risk in jumping into cold, overhead water, and that's not something that anyone would deny, including the lawyers representing the case. the contention is that when you have a pay-to-play event like this, when you have safety personnel on hand and superior knowledge of what the risks are, you have a duty of care to take care of your clients. that's something that serves the public interest. you actually have a responsibility to look out for their safety and well being, and the contention on the family's side is that tough mudder company that's set to bring in $100 million in 2013 did not live up to their duty of care toward avi. martha: understood. and when you look at the video and we're watching some of it now, it appears -- and one of the theories is that somebody else, a woman who jumped in
7:46 am
after avi, may have hit him on the way -- you know, after they landed in the water. you know, is there evidence to support that? was there an autopsy done? was there any blow on his body that might back that up, elliot? >> there was an autopsy done, and the autopsy showed a contusion that suggests that he was -- [inaudible] no one knows for sure if somebody landed on him, but that autopsy report came out months after the sheriff's investigation which said it didn't look like anybody landed on him. martha: and in terms of the help, we're hearing people shouting, go, get in, you know, hey, man, jump in the water, get your mask on. they're urging somebody to come to his aid, right? >> yeah, they are. so the friends alerted the lifeguards on shore within 30 seconds after avi went into the water, and it was tw minutes
7:47 am
before the lifeguard ordered the rescue diver in and then another two minutes, so four total minutes before the rescue diver actually went under the water. by that time there was about one minute left before major brain damage was going to set in, so they really missed the two minute national standard for a lifeguarding limit for bringing somebody out of the water by a long so shot. maria: and i want to bring in lis wiehl now, as you look at this case and, obviously, you sign a disclosure that says you understand you're undertaking a risky event and it could cause even death in some cases, but this video is going to be a very significant part of this entire situation, i would imagine. >> it's exhibit a in the plaintiff's case. yes, and elliot's right, you assume some risk, obviously, when you do something like this obstacle course. but a company cannot avoid liability with gross negligence, and that's the key here. was the four minutes that it took for in this diver -- by the way, the diver, the rescue
7:48 am
diver, didn't even have his mask on as we saw, just standing there having everybody yell at him to get in. those four minutes, mar that, are critical. the fact, too, about the overcrowding we see in the video here, all of those people, you know, again, is that gross negligence on the part of the company? martha: take a look, we have the video that shows there were all these people standing up there. now, these events used to be sparsely attended, now they're hugely popular, and they're stacked up. if your kids were doing this in a pool, you'd be saying wait a minute, everybody, you know, wait until those people swim through, and the woman who jumps down in the red shirt is potentially the person that they think may have landed on him. we don't know. there she goes into the water right after him. >> and, martha, there wouldn't have been a possibility of that if there weren't so many people lined up to go, you know, to go at the same time. and i would argue if i were the plaintiff's lawyer here, the only reason they had such overcrowding, the only reason they were so sparsely attended with divers is money, martha.
7:49 am
they wanted to have more people be there to make more money faster and faster and faster. they did not adhere to standard operating procedures which are outlined in the life saving manual here in the country and the american red cross. they did not adhere to those..% that's gross negligence. no, quote-unquote, death waiver gets you out of that. martha: we want to thank elliot wooded for joining us by skype. thank you, and, lis, we'll be following this case. the story's in "outside" magazine. elliot and li s, thanks. will: these are more and more popular. jon scott waiting in the wings for the handoff. what's up, bud? jon: we'll take it at the top of the hour, bill. we are honoring the memory of nelson handel la today. the south african hero dead at the age of 95. we'll talk with a journalist who covered his rise from jail to the presidency. plus, wicked weather settles in over a huge chunk of the country, and we'll also take a look at msnbc's coverage of
7:50 am
president obama, also the resignation of martin b bashir. it's all ahead, "happening now." bill: see you top of the hour. happy friday to you. jon: happy friday to you, bill -- bill: what? martha: more later. we'll have the rest of that sentence. bill: ice, snow, and subzero temps, some are saying it's the worst ice storm we've seen in four years. what you can expect where you live today. >> we got an e-mail indicating substantial ice buildup, possib and, obviously, you can see the ice already forming on the vehicles. so safety first.
7:51 am
7:52 am
7:53 am
bill: fox extreme weather alert,
7:54 am
that nasty winter storm the scene in oklahoma city now, and check that out. a crippling ice storm creating conditions on the roads that will be hazardous. wind chills plunging, some areas to -30 degrees. maria molina's been waiting for this all week. here it is. >> reporter: hi, bill, that's right. we've been talking about this storm, and it's already moving across the country, and it's left behind some very, very dangerously cold wind chill temperatures across portions of the rockies and also across parts of the plains in the midwest. wind chill temperatures colder than 40 degree cans below zero, and because of that we do have a number of wind chill advisories in place including the state of minnesota, north dakota and south dakota and also some wind chill warnings across parts of the northwest. and some of these current wind chill temperatures across cities like minneapolis, this is a big city, 16 degrees below zero is what it feels like, also in denver. but take a look at texas. in dallas, 11 degrees is what it
7:55 am
feels like. so these cold temperatures really are expanding and moving across the country, and we're going to see most people dealing with winter-like conditions as we head into the next several days. i do want to show you this picture, i got this off twitter from one of our viewers, jost. this is a suburb just outside the city of dallas, and you can see the ice building on some of these branches, and we could see trees coming down, already reports of power outages and dangerous driving conditions across texas, arkansas, up into parts of western tennessee and even kentucky. and this storm system is going to be impacting us out here across these areas as we head into tonight as well. northern areas across -- of the storm system like parts of ohio, indiana, illinois and also missouri could be looking at some sleet and even some snow mixing into that. bill, i do want to show you this because coming up sunday into monday we're actually expecting another storm system to impact
7:56 am
these same areas with more freezing rain, more possible snowfall, and this storm this weekend across the west is going to be producing a lot of heavy snow out here, maybe 2 feet across parts of the california si yea rah and more snow across the rockies. good for skiers. bill: pretty good day to stay home. >> reporter: good advice. martha: a little too cold to ski, i would say. way too cold at this point. all right, well, this is, obviously, the lead story of the day as the world mourns the passing of nelson mandela. keep it right here, we've got continuing coverage on fox news. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?
7:57 am
that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans,
7:58 am
they pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay and uld save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide to help you better understand what medicare is all about and which aarp medicare supplement plan works best for you. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients... plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. there's a range of plans to choose from, too, and they all travel with you anywhere in the country. join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp... an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. ♪ call today. remember, medicare supplement insurance helps cover some of what medicare doesn't pay.
7:59 am
expenses that could really add up. these kinds of plans could saveou in out-of-pocket medical costs. you'll be able to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. and there are virtually no referrals needed. so don't wait. with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide. this easy-to-understand guide will answer some of your questions and help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that's right for you. ♪ martha: batkid returns. five-year-old miles scott. he is in remission from lukemia. last night make-a-wish foundation granted his wish to become batman a day. miles will make a wish and
8:00 am
san francisco police officers will be there. he will cheer the folks on in holiday-themed event. plunge in the bay and 5 k walk and run. what an inspiration. see you tonight "on the record" at 7:00 with greta. bill: see you at 1:00. have a great weekend. martha: have a great weekend. "happening now" starts right now. >> we start out with a fox news alert. here is what is happening in south africa. a outpouring of grief and reverence following the death of nelson mandela. south africans make tribute to those they feel the father of their country. mandela dedicated his life to fight for racial freedom and equality. he spent 2years in prison following that cause. he became the nation's first plaque president and a global symbol of hope even though as challenging of conflicts can be peacefully resolved. he died last night

588 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on